The Value of What We Own
Posted by Gail | Filed under Smart Shopper
Have you ever noticed the disparity between what people are prepared to sell something for and what other people are prepared to pay for that item. There’s a gap. Sometimes that gap is so big the thing goes unsold. Think of all the items remaining after a garage sale. Or the price a body puts on their home when they price it without the help of a (reasonable) agent. Or what they think they can get for their beat up old clunker of a car.
The gap goes beyond the fact that sellers want to get the best price while buyers want to pay the least they must. There are other factors at work that can affect your decision-making when it comes to setting the price of something you’re ready to part with for money.
The very fact that we own a something means that “that something” has value to us… value that’s greater than to the person who is only thinking about buying it. Yup, we actually develop “relationships” with our stuff. Uh boy. And those relationships make us believe that the value of our stuff is higher than it is for the person who has to lay out good money to get it.
Those relationships we form with our stuff (that camera you used to take pictures of your children, those vinyl records you listen to as you made-out in the basement) also make us focus on what we’re losing (the stuff) instead of what we’re gaining (the money). And the longer we’ve owned that stuff, the stronger the bonds. So we set the bar (price) high, because if we’re gonna part with our fabulous stuff, by golly-gosh someone’s going to have to make it worth our while.
The effort we put into our stuff also increases the value to us. So that old battered table we bought in a garage sale for a buck-ninety-two and lovingly sanded and then waxed has a lot of sweat equity in it, and we want that back in cold hard cash. This is one reason why people who reno their own homes (or act as their own general contractors) find it so hard to price their homes according to the market. “But my home is better than al the other ones on the street. Look at all the work we put into it.” Ya know what? Nobody cares how long it took you to sand that table, or how many hours you put into refinishing your floors. They’re far more likely to notice the spots where the sanding is uneven or your horrible taste in furniture.
It doesn’t matter that some jeweler appraised your grandma’s engagement ring at $2,500, if the most anyone will give you to take the ring off your hands is $250 that’s what the ring is worth. The same goes for the coin collection, the piece of art you bought with your first husband, and the beautiful antique cabinet you found in a small antique store and lovingly refinished.
If you can get someone to imagine that they already own your stuff – if you can make ‘em feel that it’s their stuff – that can work in your favour when you set the price. That’s the psychology behind all those “If you’re not happy, return it in 30 days” offers. They know you’re never going to bring it back. Having driven the car, slept on the mattress or played with the new console, the loss of returning it is too much to bear.
This is also the theory behind making your home look like Not Your Home, but like the home the buyer would like to live in. Enter all the house-stagers who put your stuff in storage and fill your house with furniture, art, flowers and the smell of baking cookies. If they can get a potential buyer to see him/herself living in the space they’re more than halfway to closing the deal.
Making you want the stuff of someone you admire is another trick of the trade. That’s why brand name stuff is perceived to be of so much more value than the run of the mill stuff you can buy at a local store. And if someone famous that you admire is wearing it, well… It isn’t really about the better quality. And it isn’t really about the fact that it exactly suits your needs. It’s the fact that you can imagine yourself as so-and-so, living even for moments in the glow of their wonderfulness.
The next time you want to sell something, find a way to link someone famous to whatever it is you’re trying to dispose of. That’s probably the only way you’ll every get what you really think it’s worth.
December 13, 2010 at 8:00 am
I have found myself donating a lot of things I’ve tried to sell that simply won’t sell. At first I would keep the stuff lying around and try selling again later then I realized that I was being silly. The whole point, for me, was to get rid of things and make more space in the house. Making money would have been nice too but really, I was ready to part with stuff in whatever way possible.
In my quest to get rid of stuff, I have found some marvellous charities nearby. The Big Brothers/Big Sisters has a storage shed at the local storage place. You just drive up and put your stuff in the shed. There’s also the St Vincent de Paul Society which will make sure your stuff goes to someone in need. When all else fails, there’s always the Salvation Army.
December 13, 2010 at 8:18 am
I’m the person that advertisers hate because I don’t buy into the “If celebrity endorser has it or uses it, I gotta have it too!”. If I don’t want it or know I can’t afford it, no amount of persuading is going to get me to buy it. Neither my husband or I are particularly sentimental; we don’t have boxes of toys and clothes we wore as children, etc. About the only thing I have that is precious to me is a box of old 45’s I accumulated in the 80’s. The box is in our storage space in our condo’s unit, and I go through it maybe once/year… but I am now “this close” to tossing them because I know I’ll never buy a record player to play them, so why keep them?
December 13, 2010 at 8:41 am
I have started the long process of getting rid of unused ‘crap’ from my house. While I have donated quite a bit straight to charity, especially clothes. I know that a lot of my ‘middle class’ friends could also use a few things. Lamps and coffee maker to a recently divorced friend outfitting her new apartment made her day – two less things to buy! Baby swing, exersauser, etc. etc. to a co-worker having her first baby, helped out her stretched budget. Occassionally, I have tried to sell on kijiji, but living out of the city on an acreage made it more hassle than it was worth for what eventually become $20 items. I need to have an auction!!
December 13, 2010 at 8:53 am
I used to yard sale a fair amount and you could really tell how attached people were to their things with the the way they would haggle over your offer. Offer them $5 for something they wanted $7 for and watch them let you walk away over $2 and they still have the item to bring back in the house after.
December 13, 2010 at 9:00 am
I have been ridding myself of much “stuff” over the last year. My philosophy has been very much of “just get rid of it”. Luckily, I live in a high rise apartment in Toronto, so our magic place in the laundry room. Drop off stuff there and it quickly disappears. Success – it no longer clutters my apartment, and someone else gets something they may have been looking for!
December 13, 2010 at 9:50 am
I see the huge price difference in the hobby I collect. People selling their collections value them way higher then what any buyer would reasonably pay for them.
I place a huge value on the collection I have and really low value on the stuff I want to buy from someone. I think this disparity of price is seen at it’s greatest when you look at people that collect stuff. The relationship built is so much stronger to thje stuff you have, due to the need to go hunting for that item in the collection or the trouible you went through to add that piece to the collection.
regards,
Jason
December 13, 2010 at 10:42 am
Jason,
I agree with you. Hobbies are difficult because of the price difference from the buyer and seller. Growing up I collected trading cards and looking back I wish I invested that money instead of a hobby that would go up in value.
The things we do when we are young.
December 13, 2010 at 10:50 am
Hoarders – buried alive. They call it a disease — I call it a HABIT. My Grandma hoarded newspapers because she lived thru the depression & couldn’t afford even a paper. Even after she went blind she still wouldn’t let the papers go to the recycle. It’s sad but people today do have too much STUFF. I’ve found that to get rid of stuff you just have to let go the sentiment- PURGE! Once it’s gone you soon forget about it. I prefer to give it to the Sally Ann but a lot of donated stuff ends up in their garbage — it depends on what they think will sell.
Trash or Treasure? Can it be recycled & how do you find the right place so it doesn’t end up in the landfill?
I barely have any garbage because I recycle as much as possible. I believe every household needs to recycle & stop throwing recyclables in the trash — it starts at home!
December 13, 2010 at 11:38 am
Disparity can go both ways. I am a crafter, and often attend craft sales to sell my items. My hobby horses are priced at $49.95 – because people balk at a $50 price tag, but then tell me to “keep the nickle”!! Years ago I created an item that was quite time consuming, but very interesting. It didn’t sell at the price I decided upon; my husband informed me that people probably thought that it was priced too low because I didn’t value my own work! I raised the price $20 (to $55.00), and sold all three at the next sale!! I am going through this disparity right now with my mother. Many years ago my dad won an Olympic coin set, l988, which was valued at the time about $1,200 – 1,500. He was not happy with this win, because it had no value to him – couldn’t feed it to the cows, and because he ‘won’ it, people figured they could buy it off him for next to nothing. Fast Forward 20+ years, and my mom is now thinking she should sell these coins before they get lost in her vast possessions. I discovered a co-worker who collects Olympic coin sets who told me to ask her what she wanted for them. I asked him what he thought they were worth. He countered with, ask her what she wants for them! Problem is she has this $1,200 to 1,500 price in her head, and he did tell me that new, never out of the cases they might be ‘valued’ at $1,200 but we all know that is not how people pay for things. The catch-22 is that she could set a price too high and he says no thanks, or she sets a price too low, and he says Wow, ok!! One more problem with my 75 year old mother is that she won’t advertise (or even have a garage sale to rid herself of the clutter) because then people will know what she has, and break in to rob her when she is not home!!! OMG, how can I convince her to downsize while she is alive, because I don’t want to have to do it when she is gone…
December 13, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Somehow; we need to try to get shopping consumers thinking about the value of their “investment” in 6 months, or one year. (Typically, the value of most consumer items would drop by 50% or more).
How we do that, in the face of advertising, is what blogs like yours attempt; and kudos to you for your work. Sadly, however, your readers are probably not the ones that could most benefit from a consumption-attitude-adjustment.
December 13, 2010 at 12:41 pm
I am seriously additced to the show hoarders and have looked up info on past hoarders who have actually suffocated under their stuff. One woman was thought to be missing but it ended up 4 months later that they found her in the home. The husband had been living with his dead wife…and the police dogs had been through twice and couldn’t pick up the scent because of all the garbage and debris. There is evidence through mri’s how their brain actually functions differently than mine or yours..
I guess I value my possessions too low…and give everything away for free if someone needs it. It turn I cannot imagine spending more than 1$ on many items because I know I will pass them on for free after.
December 13, 2010 at 1:02 pm
If I have decided I don’t need an item anymore, I have no problem letting it go to either someone I think can sell it or a favourite charity group. The occassional “toy collection” I will sell online for really cheap (if they are willing to come and get it) and I give the procedes to my kids to boost their allowances.
I wasn’t always this easy going with putting value on my stuff, I used to want to get some cash out of letting things go. I would get caught up in how much I spent on it, or how well made it was or how rare it was or some other such nonsense. The truth of it is that I don’t need it anymore so (as long as it’s not going to waste), I should really just LET GO!
It helps that a large percentage of my things are either second hand purchases or hand me downs so the emotional attatchment through financial outlay is way less.
December 13, 2010 at 1:32 pm
Suzanne, if you have access to eBay it’s a great source of info on values of old collectibles. Sometimes you have to keep checking for them to come around, if they are rare, but I like letting the market determine the value that way. Your mom wouldn’t have to leave her house to sell that way, but she’d need to mail it out if the coins sell.
I have been setting values and selling my stuff for a few weeks now on eBay, and I was serious about making some money with the ads. I’ve cleared $1200 so far, after fees which seem to add up to 20% or so. To me, these things are resources and a way to do a budget booster challenge. I have an upcoming surgery and will have some copays. I have worked the equivalent of a full time job doing this the last month, but like my Mom taught me “Make hay while the sun shines!”
Also, I am serious about using donations to lower my taxes. I have been in flux taxwise for two years, but in January I will be very excited to start getting some space back by donating the many bags of stuff I have ready. It’s all valued using a guide from the Salvation Army. Here in the states you are allowed to donate $250. worth at a time with a minimal receipt left by a tax deductible company on your doorstep. We have several that will pick up, I will be calling them all. I have itemized everything, and can’t wait to start!
Yes, it’s all nice stuff and I am sentimentally attached. But it’s too much stuff to be appreciated the way it should be. And I didn’t realize that I would hear stories back about why people bought the stuff and how happy it made them. What a great feeling that is, that I’ve spread one person’s stuff to makes lots of people happy.
December 13, 2010 at 2:26 pm
All the more reason to not pay more than necessary the first-time around.
Awesome post!
So much truth here..and tough love.
December 13, 2010 at 2:36 pm
It’s funny that you mention cameras.
I just bought a new camera yesterday, since my old one has finally bitten the dust. It’s a great new camera at great price and will be used extensively, if previous patterns are any indication.
And yet… it’s hard to elt go of the previous one! It travelled all over the place with me! I didn’t realize I felt so strongly about it until I had found a replacement…
I recognize that it isn’t worth anything money-wise, and certainly I can’t even use it anymore, but somehow I feel like by discarding it, it will be like the lonely lamp from the IKEA commercials…
December 13, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Kate, at least take it to be recycled. The parts may no longer work together, but some parts may be salvageable!
I felt the same way about my camera – it fell and I could no longer get the shutter to open or close. In spite of it being broken, in travelled with me for several years when I moved to a new location. Almost 2 years ago, I was selling my old camera cards to a friend who had an Olympus brand camera (they used the smaller XD rather than SD cards), and my fiance was looking at my broken camera, and said “let me take a look at it” – I was hesitant at first, since I figured it could work, I just didn’t want to lose all hope (and yet I never bothered to try to get it fixed). It turned out it only need to be taken apart and the lens had to be re-aligned.
This fix took all of 10 minutes, yet I had been dreading letting him open the camera that didn’t work, just in case it would screw it up more. Seems silly after the fact!
I have in fact since moved on from that camera, but it is still going strong. My parents now have that camera (it’s one tough little camera!), and seem to be happy with it. I definitely had a strong connection to it and was sad to give it up, but decided my needs had changed, and that camera no longer met them.
December 13, 2010 at 5:56 pm
@Suzanne, have you checked on EBay for something similar? Might give you and idea of price.
December 13, 2010 at 7:51 pm
When I sell something, I usually want it *gone*, because it doesn’t do anymore what I want it to, or it never did, and just crowds me and fills my space, and demands energy and effort. I give much of it away to charity, or sell it for a nominal price, just enough to see if someone else might love the item enough to pay for it and not just collect it of the curbside. Only if I have a hard time parting with it, I set the price to “let’s see if someone takes it for that”.
Best deal I ever made was trading an eight year old laptop for a bottle of decent whisky. Usually I’m happy to get a jar of Nutella or a one-day-bus ticket. (The city runs a “clutter exchange”. Bus tickets have become kind-of a currency.)
December 13, 2010 at 11:44 pm
Interesting entry from Psyblog:
http://www.spring.org.uk/2008/04/6-quirks-of-ownership-how-possessions.php
Broken captcha?
December 13, 2010 at 11:47 pm
These are all great comments. But I can top the lil camera and coin problems. I had to move a bed and breakfast on an 11 acre farm to a 2 bedroom apartment.What one does with a huge water purification system and industrial size heater is beyond me. I am also having tough time making Antique furniture mesh with my mighty fine IKEA decor. I had given away all my belongings before because I wanted a more minimalist life. I am back at the drawing board. 5 televisions…..great to watch Hoarders on<lol.
December 14, 2010 at 1:52 am
@ Mo D. – no don’t get rid of your 45’s!!! I have a bin downstairs too. Perhaps our records could be friends. I will take them off your hands. Do you by chance live in the Maritimes?
December 14, 2010 at 2:10 am
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December 14, 2010 at 10:07 am
I used to be one of those people who held on to things for sentimental reasons. Living with my friends has changed a lot of that. Amy gets rid of lots of things and doesn’t hold on to them. I have sinced whittled down 7 boxes of crap to one lonely box of stuff that I won’t part with…yet, lol.
We had a garage sale last spring, and we let a lot of things go for far less than what we thought they were worth. Our idea was, if you’re going to take it off our hands, I would rather have $5 for that item we priced at $10, than have to take it to the charity drop off box and get nothing for it. I couldn’t believe some of the prices that we found at garage sales for things…$15 for a board game, well used, that I could buy brand new for $19.99 at Walmart. We walk away from those houses.
December 14, 2010 at 11:17 am
A purging trick that once worked for a roommate of mine – she was moving across the country, and had a lot of clutter from when her mother had died when we were kids. Her dad had given her all her mothers possesions because she died when we were so young, and it had become too hard for her to part with them. So, a bunch us (her friends) and her all drank a *little* wine, and started talking about how much we hate having crap in our lives. We then played the “5 seconds to love it” game where we held something up to her, and she had 5 seconds to decide if she was keeping it or ‘tossing’ it. We thew all the tossed stuff into garbage bags and piled it up in the front of the apartment for a week. Then, after a week, she went through it to make sure she hadn’t gotten rid of anything she would regret losing. I think she took back 3 items out of 8 garbage bags.
Having others with you is a great way of checking “is this really just my emotions, or can I really justify keeping this in my life?”. If she’d chosen to keep everything, we wouldn’t have cared, but I think she needed to have somone say “you don’t have to keep it just because you’ve always kept it”. Now, the things she’s kept are ‘worth’ that much more to her.
December 14, 2010 at 12:06 pm
Watched my mom have numerous meltdowns over trying to sell things that were my grandparents. She couldn’t affort to move them across the country, my brother and I didn’t like or want them, and the antique dealers, stamp/coin collectors, etc wouldn’t give her “a fair price” for them…
Told myself that I never wanted to let a set of dishes or anything else put me into such an emotional crisis.
@ Suzanne: Unfortunately, I had a massive job on our hands when my mom died this spring… it was actually easier than trying to make her get rid of it, even though she knew she was dying from cancer. Although – I did have to call in ALL family favours to help me cope with the volume.
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